Assetz Capital agrees £200m funding line with Aeon Investments
Assetz Capital has secured a £200m funding line with London-based Aeon Investments to boost its commercial mortgage lending to businesses.
The peer-to-peer lending platform said that Aeon Investments will fund £200m-worth of small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) loans arranged through its platform over the next three years, enabling the provision of mortgages of up to £10m on commercial investment properties.
It said the agreement increases its origination capabilities in the commercial mortgage lending space to £900m, and enables it to diversify and expand its capacity to lend across the broadest range of commercial properties used by UK SMEs.
The new funding comes at a critical time for SMEs, which are disproportionately impacted by the rising costs of materials, inflation, increasing wages and a shortage of skilled staff.
There is also a greater need for new funding as banks are visibly pulling back funding for SMEs.
Read more: Assetz Capital reports 2022 lending peak in July
Assetz Capital has been working to grow the amount of retail and institutional funds lent to UK SME businesses, currently standing at £1.5bn.
“The need for SME funding has never been more apparent as an increasing number of traditional lenders aren’t offering financing solutions to SMEs,” said Assetz Capital chief Stuart Law. “Together, through innovative and alternative financing we can enable UK businesses to grow and scale up.”
Aeon has already signed similar agreements with two other lenders.
Read more: Assetz investors’ queued funds now entering access accounts
The announcement follows recent research which showed that institutional investors are increasingly favouring structured credit products.
A poll by Pureprofile of 100 European institutional investors who collectively manage around $574bn in assets found that 84 per cent believe pensions schemes will increase their allocation to structured credit products.
This will be driven by their attractive yields when compared to other asset classes, greater innovation and transparency in the structured credit market, and an improving regulatory environment, Assetz Capital said.
“Our agreement with Assetz Capital is the latest example of our commitment to the commercial real estate sector,” said Aeon Investments chief Oumar Diallo. “If you adopt a strong focus on risk management and have prudent LTVs and conservative debt coverage, we believe commercial real estate lending is a very attractive asset class, particularly in the current environment with depressed fixed income market and falling equity prices.”
Read more: Assetz chief calls for policy support for SME housebuilders
Assetz Capital has secured a number of institutional funding lines in recent years.
Earlier this year, it secured an extra £750m of funding for its loans from Nordic financing provider Aros Kapital.